


Attack at a Carnival

by SoSpectacular



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-06
Updated: 2012-08-06
Packaged: 2017-11-25 05:26:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/635579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoSpectacular/pseuds/SoSpectacular





	Attack at a Carnival

It felt good. In fact, it felt sublime to be back on stage once more, playing the old songs that they could never forget with the humans that would eventually depart in what will seem like a blink of the eye in the long run.  
It was a carnival at which the three ‘bots and the humans were playing. In town for one week before it shuffled out again, and the air was alive with excitement, wonderment and blatant rip offs. None of the humans seemed to care, as they forked out money for trinkets which would be forgotten by tomorrow. The passing humans dropped coins and small notes, change from said rip offs, into the box before the stage (‘Donations for the 2 Cent Show’ the box read in big red letters). The sun was streaming down, warming the Earth upon which the humans wandered, and seemed to thaw out the memories of the day everyone malfunctioned, allowing the memories of that horrible day, and the fights which followed slide into the background to be replaced by the fantastic show. They’d been performing for so long that The Spine could have sworn that the sun’s rays has even warmed his mechanical heart.  
It couldn’t have been a more perfect day. With the sun shining, after a few days of overcast weather, the birds had come out, seemingly just to accompany the ‘bots as they sang and danced to catchy tunes which would send the humans whistling and humming all through the afternoon. The air practically shimmered as the rides and attractions spun on, taking on and entertaining countless guests, making them forget the worries of their normal lives, even if just for one day.  
With the amount of movement, and laughter that carried in the air, accompanied by the Robots playing and singing Sound of Tomorrow, The Spine didn’t even notice the hooded figures moving purposefully to the stage before it was far too late. Once the two figures reached the stage and leapt up, everything unfolded rather quickly. The hoods fell back, and the sun shining against the metal caused The Spine to draw one conclusion; these strangers were The Becile Bots, and by the way they swiped at the bots on stage, starting with incapacitating The Jon in the initial confusion, they weren’t here to say ‘hello’ and have a friendly catch up.  
In an instant, a blade which burned red emerged apparently from nowhere and sliced down The Jon’s front, spilling oil, cogs and coils onto the ground. He dropped like a tonne of bricks as he clutched his torso, trying to scoop everything back into himself. The Jon was in too much pain to even be able to cry out.  
The Spine was quick to react, a knee-jerk reaction from his days in the war, as he took the electric guitar from around his shoulders and swung it with a force which only a ‘bot could muster. The guitar made a mighty *whack* and *twang* sound as it collided with one of the Becile Bots’ head, the strings snapping and a shrill ringing sound playing back on the speakers, causing the surrounding humans to cover their ears, some even collapsing to the ground, as if their proximity to it would help drown out the noise.  
The Becile bot fell to the ground, not too far from where The Jon had fallen, who was now being seen to by a very distressed Michael Reed. Sam had fallen off of his stool at the drum kit, and from the corner of his vision, The Spine could see Steve warding off three approaching Becile Bots, putting his Fire Spinning techniques to good use. It was true that metal robots would not burn, but should the Becile’s clothing catch fire, they would quickly overheat. At the very least, Steve was buying them precious time.  
“Rabbit, go help Steve,” The Spine said without even taking the time to check that his brother was there. Upon receiving no response from Rabbit, The Spine pressed a heavy foot onto the Bot which had attacked The Jon and looked around, calling, “Rabbit?” just in time to spot Rabbit as he disappeared into the crowd, being dragged back by the second bot, which The Spine had neglected in his assault on the one now laying on the ground. “RABBIT!” The Spine bellowed, his eyes glues to the spot where Rabbit had disappeared.  
This was worse than dreadful. The Spine dove off stage, narrowly missing a screaming girl who wasn’t handling the playback very well. In his rush to find Rabbit, The Spine hadn’t even noticed her, and she would have been crushed underfoot had her mother not swiped her out of the way, and had Spine not twisted in the air to come into a roll to her left. After stumbling to his feet, The Spine bounded through the crowd, heading towards the last place he had seen Rabbit being dragged. A few long, bounding strides later, and he was far away enough from the stage and the ringing from the speakers that the humans only seemed slightly irritated from the sound, but were still going about their business.  
But Rabbit was nowhere to be seen. This would require a fabulous rescue indeed.  
Without another moment’s hesitation, The Spine bolted for the nearest exit, which he figured would be the most likely place that the Beciles would head out, just in time to see the van, which he had seen multiple times before, speed off onto the road and into the distance.  
And just like that, Rabbit was gone.  
With a sigh, and a slight roll of his eyes -because really, why did this have to happen on what would have been an otherwise perfect day?- The Spine spun on his heel and headed back to the stage, glad to hear no ringing from the speakers as Steve had shut them off now that he didn’t have bots to ward off. He could have questioned the Dreadlocked human as to why he had his Fire Spinning equipment with him, but decided against it as, really, he had saved them a great deal of trouble. All three of the bots could have been dragged off, rather than just Rabbit.  
“Is everyone okay?” He asked as he climbed back onto the stage, posing the question to the humans as it was more than obvious that The Jon was far from ‘okay’. Sam and Steve mumbled their answers, though Steve seemed slightly singed, but Michael didn’t say a thing, and The spine could see why.  
The Jon, who has unsuccessfully pulled all of his insides back into himself, was unresponsive. Shut down. Gone. Michael had always adored The Jon, it was plain to see, as the Human sat at the bot’s side, whose face was streaked with the oil that had spluttered from between his lips and leaked from his eyes, with his head bowed. The Spine saw glistening tears fall from Michael, which landed on The Jon’s torn shirt with little *plip plip plip* sounds.  
Slowly but surely, The Spine registered that the humans were standing around them, watching in awe as the scene had folded open before them. He turned to face the sea of staring eyes. There were children sobbing at the sight of The Jon, and the entire crowd was at a standstill. The Spine’s microphone was still strapped to him and with a sideways glance at Steve, the human ducked behind his soundboard and switched on the feedback for The Spine’s mic.  
“We sure are sorry about this, Ladies and Gentlemen, but as you can see, we’re having a few, uhhh, technical difficulties and we’ll have to cut the show short. Please, go about your business and enjoy the carnival,” He announced, though not a single human made any effort to move, all of their eyes fixed on The Jon. Ripping his mic from his face, The Spine turned to Michael and Sam, “We have to get The Jon out of here. I need to find Rabbit.”  
The bot whom The Spine had assaulted was groaning on the ground, complaining about not being able to move, because his mobile functions had short-circuited upon being whacked with the now broken guitar. In a fluid movement, The Spine was crouched beside the bot, Sam and Michael moving The Jon out of sight with as much care as they could, and had the collar of the bot’s shirt balled in his fist, pulling the defenceless robot up to his face, “Where did they take Rabbit?” He growled as the velvet red curtain shut the scene out from prying eyes thanks to Steve. The Becile bot only smiled a wicked grin, and The Spine’s fist collided with the robot’s jaw, “WHERE?!” he demanded.  
“You aint ever gonna fi-find your little friend. He’s gone for good. We’s gonna have fun pulling him apart. Scatter him, leave you pieces in your front yard.”  
The Spine’s eyes narrowed to slits and he breathed a single word; “Fine.” His fingers pressed into the wound on the back of the Becile’s head, and the robot screamed. “Are you going to tell me,” His fingers found what he was looking for; the microchip which contained the robot’s memory board, “Or should I just take this?”  
Another wicked grin slipped onto the Becile’s face, but was soon lost as The Spine’s fingers curled around the chip and yanked it from his skull, shutting off the bot entirely. The Spine tossed it to Steve and commanded the human (which was strange, as The Spine usually treated the humans as equals) “Find out where their hideout is then get me there.”


End file.
